‘Blogs’ – Your Business Voice Online
A website puts a face to your business, and a 'blog', or email newsletter, articulates your message, writes Ken Burgin of ProfitableHospitality.com.Do you need yet another way to share your thoughts with the world? I've never kept a diary, so writing one online is a new (and enjoyable) project. With ideas and projects always popping into my head, I either write them down quickly or they're gone! The current series of My Restaurant Rules is a case in point - whatever you think of the stumbling competitors, there are a host of issues in each episode relevant to my area of restaurant management, so I sharpen the online pencil in my 'blog'.
A Weblog,or 'blog',is an instant publishing tool used to add fresh content to a web page - it may even be your web page. Blog is both a noun and a verb. When you blog (verb), you write. A website puts a face to your business, and a blog, or email newsletter articulates your message. Customers and prospects are sick of marketing babble, and just as every site needs real people and names on the 'About Us' page, it also needs an up-to-date personality and current happenings to inspire interest and discussion.
Isn't a website enough? Maybe, but unless you attend to it regularly, the information can become outdated. This could even be your first website if you're delaying the inevitable! You can add fresh information wherever you are - just log on. You can also allow readers to interact with you through an optional 'comments' box. What about a chat room or discussion boards? They're good too, but a blog has you as the primary author rather than one of many.
Blog technology is not email, so it bypasses spam filters and inbox overload. Keen blog readers use desktop 'newsreaders' to subscribe to their favourite blogs and keep up with new entries. Your blog can enable that through a system called RSS ('Really Simple Syndication').But most people just bookmark blogs in their browsers and check for content according to quality and frequency of updates. Photos are easy to add using the free Picasa (Windows) or Flickr (Mac) online systems. Just upload pictures and add them to the current blog entry, so it's more like a magazine. Adding your face to the blog is important, so use one of these services to get your smile online.
Blogging is great for writers and consultants to review books and dining experiences, make travel notes, jot down new products seen and tasted, record research findings - your thoughts on the state of the world. Restaurants can use blogs to provide for chefs' news, wine updates, upcoming events and the entertainment line-up. Foodcrazy customers share their 'reviews' - see Pink Cocoa (below) for the thoughts of a Sydney food fan.
How to start 'blogging' tonight? Choose from either the free Blogger or one of the other low-cost services listed below (they all have free trial periods). Log on, sign up and choose a design you like. Stick to a tight niche. Keep it short and fresh - an easy way to start is to write about websites you've visited or stories you've read online, adding direct web links. Link it to your website or email the link to friends and colleagues, making sure you add fresh content regularly.
To see how some real people use blogs, see the blog written by marketing guru Seth Godin, and the Just Food blog written about the state of the industry. There's a good list of blogs about the food industry at Kiplog, and check how I'm going at Ken's Management Logbook.
